Acquiring a B2B Telemarketing List: 7 Questions to Ponder

Making sure that a contact list is of high-quality will increase the chances of reaching the right prospects, while reducing time wasted on contacting bad ones. This step is crucial to the telemarketing campaign, because it’s the list that provides direction to the whole process. Without a good list, telemarketers would have to work blind, groping in the dark for data.

There are always telemarketing companies that could provide lists  of names and numbers, but to get the best return out of an investment in a list, it is important to ask the right questions first; otherwise the campaign might end up in the dumpsters.

Here are some key questions to ask when acquiring a telemarketing list:

1. What is the purpose of the telemarketing list? It is important to pre-define whether the goal is to spread information or to generate sales; whether it concerns a product or a service, and what the nature and price range of that product or service will be.
2. What is the target audience?  The company has to have an established customer base (or at least the knowledge of it) for the product or service in question. The more a company can profile its existing customers, the more effectively it can target people like them.
3. How old is the list? Most often, prospect information has a short shelf life, so it is imperative to know how dated the list is.
4. How widely has the list been sold? A list would have been given to other companies in most cases, because no unique target market belongs to only one business. That’s okay, but it is still a must to know how many firms have already taken hold of the list.
5. When is the list due to be updated? To lessen concerns about the freshness of a telemarketing list, find out when it is due to be updated, and arrange to get hold of the updated version as soon as it is available.
6. What is the source of the list? In building the list, it would be relieving to know that there is some kind of affiliation associated with it, or some degree to which contacts on the list have opted in to providing data. This background suggests that this type of sales approach will be successful, based on the manner by which information was obtained.
7. How much data is on the list? Obviously, the more (pertinent) data there are on the list, the better it can be used and refined once the telemarketing campaign begins.

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